I think it's fascinating how people can claim that a group is homogeneous from skin color and genitalia alone. What about diversity of background, view point, education, job experience, etc?
First, there are lots of types of diversity of background, viewpoint, education, experience, and the like that you can't get without making sure you have diversity of race, gender, class, and so forth.
Second, there's a question about what the point of diversity is; nobody is claiming that reducing homogeneity is, in and of itself, a worthwhile goal. In CS at least, it's obvious to me that there's no particularly good (in the sense of intrinsic) reason that there are way more male than female, white and Asian than black and Hispanic, etc. people in the industry. This means that my industry is missing some two-thirds of the people who could be in it -- drawing from a pool that's artificially limited to maybe a third of what it could be. I work for a company that's having trouble hiring, and I use and contribute to several open source projects that are having trouble finding volunteers. If we can triple the pool of involved folks, my life gets personally better.
Meanwhile, it's not at all clear to me that it's the case that CS as an industry (or design as an industry) is missing a bunch of folks who are perfectly capable of contributing except that they have the wrong background or viewpoint. Background is very easy to fix (if you're motivated and have the right opportunities available to you); work-relevant viewpoints tend to actually be important, like whether you value being a stickler for style, and I think there's plenty of diversity in work-irrelevant viewpoints.
Relatedly, there's a question of accounting for privilege. It is entirely too easy for me to geek out with people who have all been programming since middle school, which can be legitimately intimidating to someone who's just picking it up and afraid of asking dumb questions (instead of merely seeming precocious). Class, and to a lesser extent race and gender, influence privilege and what opportunities are available to people. Things like viewpoint, not so much, and things like education are an effect, not a cause (since they're fixable, and since it's a good thing not to have diversity of education and merely to have everyone well-educated -- tying back in to what the point of achieving diversity is). Going out of our way to include people who didn't have the opportunities we had is a good way to counteract the effects of that unfairness.
Yes, it's possible to self-select into a group of people who seem the same now, but that's still based on assumptions.
For example, until graduating high school, we were one of two "white" families in the entire neighborhood. Further, I didn't get my first computer until I was 16.. when I had saved up enough money at my minimum wage job to buy it myself. It only took two years. Finally, I was the first in my family to finish a full year of college and then the first to graduate. Only a few have followed me since.
Assuming you know who I am and what I am because I happen to look "white" and be male is insulting.
And you have no idea what it would be like to go through day-to-day life as a black woman. If your response to "You have privilege" is "I had it hard" you've already failed to even understand what the conversation is about.
Comments
I think it's fascinating how people can claim that a group is homogeneous from skin color and genitalia alone. What about diversity of background, view point, education, job experience, etc?
I wonder how they choose books to read..
First, there are lots of types of diversity of background, viewpoint, education, experience, and the like that you can't get without making sure you have diversity of race, gender, class, and so forth.
Second, there's a question about what the point of diversity is; nobody is claiming that reducing homogeneity is, in and of itself, a worthwhile goal. In CS at least, it's obvious to me that there's no particularly good (in the sense of intrinsic) reason that there are way more male than female, white and Asian than black and Hispanic, etc. people in the industry. This means that my industry is missing some two-thirds of the people who could be in it -- drawing from a pool that's artificially limited to maybe a third of what it could be. I work for a company that's having trouble hiring, and I use and contribute to several open source projects that are having trouble finding volunteers. If we can triple the pool of involved folks, my life gets personally better.
Meanwhile, it's not at all clear to me that it's the case that CS as an industry (or design as an industry) is missing a bunch of folks who are perfectly capable of contributing except that they have the wrong background or viewpoint. Background is very easy to fix (if you're motivated and have the right opportunities available to you); work-relevant viewpoints tend to actually be important, like whether you value being a stickler for style, and I think there's plenty of diversity in work-irrelevant viewpoints.
Relatedly, there's a question of accounting for privilege. It is entirely too easy for me to geek out with people who have all been programming since middle school, which can be legitimately intimidating to someone who's just picking it up and afraid of asking dumb questions (instead of merely seeming precocious). Class, and to a lesser extent race and gender, influence privilege and what opportunities are available to people. Things like viewpoint, not so much, and things like education are an effect, not a cause (since they're fixable, and since it's a good thing not to have diversity of education and merely to have everyone well-educated -- tying back in to what the point of achieving diversity is). Going out of our way to include people who didn't have the opportunities we had is a good way to counteract the effects of that unfairness.
Yes, it's possible to self-select into a group of people who seem the same now, but that's still based on assumptions.
For example, until graduating high school, we were one of two "white" families in the entire neighborhood. Further, I didn't get my first computer until I was 16.. when I had saved up enough money at my minimum wage job to buy it myself. It only took two years. Finally, I was the first in my family to finish a full year of college and then the first to graduate. Only a few have followed me since.
Assuming you know who I am and what I am because I happen to look "white" and be male is insulting.
And you have no idea what it would be like to go through day-to-day life as a black woman. If your response to "You have privilege" is "I had it hard" you've already failed to even understand what the conversation is about.